The invention concerns a feed-in device for various continuous forms, assembled in rolls or stacks, for feeding the printer of a data processing system. Here, the rolls or stacks are arranged respectively below or next to one another, so that the individual continuous form sheets can be pulled off upwards flat next to one another.
When a data processing system is used for various functions, for example, accounting, scheduling, routine circulars, invoicing, and the like, appropriate preprinted continuous forms are always required. Depending on the work of the data processing system, they are fed as continuous forms for the particular function, into the printer of the data processing system. Consequently, for such an operation, an appropriate number of continuous forms must be kept available, since each function generally requires its own individual printed form. When making a transition from one to another function, it is necessary to remove the continuous form stock that was previously fed into the printer and to insert into the printer the continuous form stock that is required for the new function. The continuous forms are generally assembled in stacks and housed in cartons. Up to now, their interchange has been accomplished by placing them by the printer as required, and by inserting into the printer the continuous form stock from the carton. The cartons which contain the continuous form stock involve objects of considerable weight. Consequently, the replacement of cartons, which is necessary in the well-known operating mode described above, represents a bodily stress for the operating personnel, which impairs the rapid operation of the data processing system and which occasionally cannot be managed at all by the available personnel. In any case, transporting the respective cartons back and forth is tedious work.
Instead of assembling the continuous forms into a stack, there also exists the possibility of assembling them on a roll, which then must be replaced like the above-described carton. The problem of back-and-forth transport is here the same.
A feed-in device for continuous forms assembled in stacks is already known from the U.S. Pat. No. 2,587,827. Here, the continuous forms are conducted to a printer. The feed-in device here consists of a box with compartments arranged vertically or horizontally next to one another, to which the respective stack of continuous forms is assigned. The continuous forms are here either pulled out upwards from the vertical compartments or are pulled out sideways from the horizontal compartments and are conducted to a printer. With this arrangement to transfer from one continuous form to another, it is necessary to reach into the respective compartment, and to seize the end of the continuous form located in this compartment, so as to thread it into the printer. This extraction of a continuous form from a compartment, when transferring from one continuous form to another, represents an inconvenient handling process, especially when a compartment is still nearly completely filled up by the respective stack. In this case, there is only little space for seizing the respective end of the continuous form with the hand.
Furthermore, from the journal IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Volume 17, Number 7, December 1974, pages 1933 and 1934, a feed-in device for continuous forms collected in stacks has become known, which involves the following: When a stack is used up, a new stack is rapidly made available or else a transfer is made from one stack to another stack that has previously been made ready. This particular arrangement works with a rotary device, which has room for two stacks. The continuous form is always withdrawn from one stack, while the second stack is held in readiness on the rotary device. At first, its end is held fast by a spiked roller. If a stack has now been used up, or if the continuous form of the stack held in readiness is to be fed in, the rotary device is turned, and the ready stack is thereby brought into position for pulling off the continuous form. The end of the respective continuous form, which is held fast by the spiked roller, is then tilted over to the feed-in device of the printer, which thereupon pulls in the continuous form.